Genesis 28:10-19
When God Shows Up
In today’s story, Jacob was in a strange place to meet God. You might expect to encounter God at a church retreat or a revival meeting, or in an inspiring church service. You might expect to find God when you are serving him with all your heart. But Jacob had been doing none of those things. In fact, when he met God, he was actually a fugitive on the run. Jacob the trickster had tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright, and Esau had murder in his eyes. So, Jacob’s mom saved his life by sending him to their home country to find a wife.
Jacob was a manipulator, a conniver, a trickster, an unlikely person to carry out God’s promise to his parents and grandparents. Yet, he was the son of Isaac, the grandson of the great patriarch Abraham. And whether Jacob liked it or not, he was in the holy line of succession to birth a nation of God’s people. One day God would rename him “Israel,” from which would come both the name and the people for this great nation.
But right now, he was fleeing for his life. And, lo and behold, God showed up. Today I want you to note three things God said to Jacob, because we need to hear these same messages from God. The first thing God said is,
1. I AM THEIR GOD. He told Jacob, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” This was an important starting point for Jacob: though this is the first time he met God personally, he had heard about God. How could you not, growing up with Isaac and Rebekah and Abraham and Sarah? I can just hear him saying to Isaac, “Daddy, tell me again the story of when Granddad was about to sacrifice you out of obedience to God, and a voice from heaven stopped him.” Or to Abraham, “Grandpa, what was it like for you and Grandma to have a child in your twilight years? I mean, did you go to Babies R Us and buy a walker/stroller combo unit?” Jacob certainly had heard about God.
I was thinking about my own family. I was surrounded by Christians who went to church every Sunday and more or less practiced their faith. My granddad was a quiet man of strong faith. When he was in his late 90s, I asked him about it. He said, “In our day, we didn’t talk much about it, especially men. But I knew I had Jesus in my heart. And I served as a deacon in our church all my life, helping care for people.” My mom and dad were far from perfect, but they too knew the Lord. And there were so many in our church family who invested in me as I grew up.
You may not have been blessed with a family of believers, but no doubt you can recall some people in your life—whether family or friends, mentors or teachers—who made a spiritual impression on you. For some of you, that was how you came to the Lord. And your first step was to hear, “I am their God.” God wooed you into his family through his work in the lives of others.
Perhaps you have been a spiritual mentor yourself. The saying goes, “You may be the only Bible someone ever reads.” They may see your quiet faith, your life of integrity, your desire to please God with your thoughts and actions and words, and God whispers to their soul, “I am their God,” as God woos them to himself. One of the fun parts of heaven will be to exchange stories: “You know that one time I was having a really bad day, and you encouraged me? That was the day I started watching your faith and moving toward Jesus, because I knew you had something I didn’t have!”
It’s a great message to hear, “I am their God.” But it’s not enough. Jacob also needed to hear a second message, which basically was ...
2. I AM YOUR GOD. The saying is true: “God doesn’t have any grandchildren, just children.” Nobody makes it to heaven by the faith of their mother...or father...or great aunt who had that humongous family Bible on the coffee table. No, as wonderful as it is to have a spiritual heritage, it’s not enough. You need to be able to hear what Jacob heard: “I am your God.”
Jacob was running from his problems when God met him on the run. He never anticipated a holy encounter. If anything, maybe he expected a holy scolding. But instead of guilt, he found grace. Instead of condemnation, he found compassion.
And he received the promise God made long ago to his grandfather and father. In verses 13 and 14, God told him, “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” The great Abrahamic covenant of land, people, and blessing would now be Jacob’s. You see, even as he fled for his life, God had not forgotten about him. God knew where he was. God knew what he was. And God was still his God, not just his father’s and mother’s God, not just his grandfather’s God, but his God.
When I headed to West Point at age 18, I got to decide, “Will I carry on with my parents’ faith or will I go some other direction?” And I found my way. I found God there, through the cookies and Kool-Aid of the Protestant chaplains, through a Catholic priest who was the absolute coolest person I had ever met, through guitars in Catholic worship, and through worship at the Cadet Chapel, teaching military kids in Protestant Sunday School, and going on retreats with both Catholics and Protestants. Yeah, it was the same God of my parents, but now I knew him on my own. Their faith was now my faith as I became an adult.
Has God whispered into your soul, “I am your God”? Not your wife’s God, not your friend’s God, not your son’s God, but your God?
And then Jacob, on the run, desperately needed to hear one more thing from God. You and I do as well. God told Jacob,
3. I AM WITH YOU. In verse 15, God said, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” It’s a beautiful assurance at a time when Jacob really needed it. Back then the heathen nations around Jacob believed their gods were restricted to the area where they lived. So, if you left your land as Jacob did here, you lost the protection of your god. Not so with the one true God! As the prophet Jonah learned, you can never outrun God. Wherever you go, God is there. The psalmist expressed this idea to God in Psalm 139 as he wrote,
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
(Psalm 139:7-10)
In today’s story God reassured Jacob, “I am with you and I will watch out over you wherever you go.” Do we need that message? Is God with you on those loneliest of days, or when a friend lets you down? Is God with you when you can’t seem to lose those pounds, or when that one recurring temptation rears its ugly head once again? Is God with you when you have to make a move in level of care? Is God there when you receive that tough diagnosis? Yes, God is there.
For Jacob, God wrapped his message in a very cool visual: He gave Jacob the original “Stairway to Heaven.” Yes, this is long before the Led Zeppelin version your kids listened to. The stairway was full of angels coming down and heading back up to heaven’s glories. It’s like God was saying, “Here’s my man, Jacob! He’s going to do great things, although he doesn’t know it yet. Hey, everybody in heaven! Come take a look!” And they did. They lined up, came down the stairs, said “Wow!”, and then headed back up so someone else could look.
Referring to the stairway, verse 13 says, “The Lord stood above it.” But the Hebrew there is difficult to translate. It could just as easily mean, “The Lord stood there beside him.” That translation lines up better with what Jacob said when he woke up: “Surely the Lord is in this place!” Jacob was so floored by God’s presence that he renamed that place “Bethel,” which means “House of God.” I like this translation, “The Lord stood there beside him,” because it tells us, while Jacob slept, there God was. “Immanuel: God with us.” God came down the stairway to be with Jacob right where he was.
Jesus later would quote this same dream to explain his mission. In John 1:51, he said, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” Jesus Christ came to bridge the gap between a holy God and a sinful humanity. He came down the stairs so that we could go up them. And through it all, God said, “I am with you.”
What message do you need to hear today? “I am their God”? That’s the beginning point to God, as you see the Lord at work in others around you. Or, “I am your God”? This is when you begin a personal relationship with the God who has been pursuing you in love, just as he pursued Jacob. Or, “I am with you”? Your God is not bound by geography or circumstance. Nothing is too large to keep him away. No matter what you may face, God is with you. Let us pray:
Thank you, God, that you will settle for nothing else than a personal relationship with each of us. Help us not rely on the preacher or our papa or anyone else for our faith. Help us to come to you individually, as you meet us where we are. And help us to know that your loving hand will guide us into who you want us to become. And that you will see us through any obstacles on the way there. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
